Losing your Friday focus? Ease into the weekend by catching up on the latest marketing and business news:

• U.S. Postal Service requests 5.6 percent rate increase
• Who will win the ‘Social TV’ ad wars?
• OMMA’s list of the ‘100 Most Important Online Publishers’
• Fifty-seven percent of all U.S. Internet users visited newspaper websites in May
• More than one-third of women surveyed say they are ‘addicted’ to Facebook
• The effect of LeBron madness on media, advertising
• Ad-industry optimism is on the rise

Losing your Friday focus? Ease into the weekend by catching up on the latest marketing and business news:

• MSNBC.com nixes banner ads
• Rumors build about new Google social network ‘Google Me’
• Merger and acquisition activity is up for marketing and media industries
• CMOs are sticking around longer, annual survey shows
• U.K. regulators may warn consumers of T.V. product placements
• An update on the Google vs. China situation
• Indian company charges agencies to participate in pitches
• iAd launches
• Almost three-quarters of e-retailers are developing mobile strategies, study says

Have a safe and happy holiday weekend!

Losing your Friday focus? Ease into the weekend by catching up on the latest marketing and business news:

• Shuttered magazines get new lives as mobile apps
• Only 41 percent of companies using social media have a strategy in place, survey says
• Twitter offers new ads based on trending topics
• Only 12 percent of Web retailers have mobile versions of their sites
• Judge dismisses Viacom’s lawsuit against YouTube
• Social media networking may cause spikes in oxytocin, making people willing to spend more money, study shows
• Recipients respond to commercial e-mails quickly, survey says
• Eighty-two percent of small businesses say they plan to increase e-mail efforts this year
• Social sharing helps increase e-mail click-throughs

Losing your Friday focus? Ease into the weekend by catching up on the latest marketing and business news:

• iPad advertisers see great results so far
• New York Times releases ‘Beta620’ to test new ideas
• Technology companies estimate the value of a Facebook fan
• Online advertising expected to become second-largest advertising medium by 2013
• One-third of Internet users watch online TV
• Reed Construction and Hanley Wood pair up to take on McGraw-Hill
• Word-of-mouth marketing more effective online, Yahoo! study says
• YouTube launches CitizenTube
• Fake General Mills news release causes a stir